Believe it or not: Icelandic geothermal to power European cars | SmartPlanet

The methanol method. Geothermal plants like this one in Pingvellir, Iceland emit small amounts of CO2. Carbon Recycling is capturing the CO2 from a similar facility and converting it to “renewable” methanol.

Believe it or not: Icelandic geothermal to power European cars

By Mark Halper | February 13, 2013, 5:16 AM PST

Iceland is known for geothermal power. Hot earth generates a quarter of the country’s electricity and provides heating to homes, offices and swimming pools.

Now, some of that roiling, boiling energy source will end up in European cars and make them more fuel efficient, thanks to a deal struck by Reykjavik’s Carbon Recycling International (CRI) and Dutch oil company Argos.

CRI will provide methanol that Argos will add into gasoline, CRI announced on its website. Methanol-gasoline blends are known to enhance mileage.

But this isn’t typical methanol. CRI, as I’ve reported, is producing methanol from the carbon dioxide emitted from Iceland’s HS Orka, one of many geothermal plants in the North Atlantic island nation.

CRI refers to its product as “renewable methanol” precisely because it captures CO2 that would otherwise escape to the atmosphere and contribute to global warming.